VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN SECTION NEWSLETTER
IEEE Region 3, Council 9, Section 65 April 1996
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CONTENTS
[1] April Meeting
[2] Reservations
[3] March Meeting Report
[4] Second Annual IEEE VMS Technical Mini-Symposium
[5] Section Elections Coming
[6] Electronic Newsletter
[7] COmputer/Control Chapter News
[8] For your information
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[1]
April Meeting
Dr. Charles E. Konrad
Manager, Advanced Development
Electric Vehicles
GE Drive Systems, Salem VA
"Recent Development in Electric
Vehicles"
Dr. Bud Konrad will discuss recent developments in
battery technology and control systems for electric cars
and transit buses.
Dr. Konrad has been involved in new product
development at GE for 35 years, and holds over 50
patents. He last spoke to the Virginia Mountain
Section in 1991, when he discussed the history of
electric cars in the US. This talk will be an update on
how electric vehicle technology has progressed and
GE's recent involvement. Hybrid power trains with
both internal combustion and electric drives will also
be discussed.
About the Speaker
Dr. Konrad holds a BSEE from West Virginia
University, and the MSEE and PhD. from Virginia
Tech.
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[2]
Reservations
for the April Meeting
Thursday, April 18
Time: 6:30 PM Social
7:00 PM Dinner
8:00 PM Program
Place: Sheraton Inn
2727 Ferndale Drive, Roanoke
Exit 3-W (Hershberger Rd West)
off I-581, then right at 1st traffic light
Cost: Member or Guest $ 12.00
Student $ 4.50
For reservations, please contact one of the following
representatives before 5 PM on Monday, April 15:
Roanoke: Hausila Singh 563-8639
Blacksburg: Anbo Wang, 231-4355
Wayne Scales 231-5622
Lexington: Dick Skutt 464-7236
Radford and Christiansburg:
Russell Churchill 731-0655
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[3]
VMS Section Activities
MEETING REPORT
IEEE Virginia Mountain Section, March 21, 1996
Have you ever noticed barnacles on a ship's hull and
wondered why there is no easy method to remove
them? Dr. Schoenbach, of Old Dominion University,
believes he may have discovered a way.
At the March VMS meeting, Dr. Schoenbach
described a research effort to characterize the effect of
pulsed electic fields on living cells. In particular, he
has developed models of the reactions of cell
membranes to electric fields, and has developed
systems that can be used for water treatment, medical
applications and, yes, pest control. Large field
strengths cause the membrane to rupture, usually
killing the cell. Lower field strengths can have the
effect of causing pores to open, and this permits fluids
to flow into and out of the cell. Whereas the stronger
field strengths can be used to kill small organisms, the
intermediate levels can be used in medical treatments
to inject certain substances into cells. The intermediate
field strengths could in principle also be used to stun
small creatures such as barnacles.
Dr. Schoenbach has built small-scale and medium-
scale prototypes of systems that demonstrate these
effects. Rather than testing these systems on
barnacles, he has concentrated on brine shrimp, a
small but hardy creature that abounds in both sea
water and fresh water. Some interesting experiments
have led to estimates of optimal pulse magnitudes and
duty cycles. The environmental effects of these
systems are small, as compared with existing chemical
alternatives.
...Submitted by Lynn Abbott, Virginia Tech
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[4]
Next Month
Second Annual IEEE VMS Technical Mini-
Symposium
Student Paper Contest
The IEEE Virginia Mountain Section (VMS) will hold
its second Technical Mini-Symposium and Student
Paper Contest at the Marriott, Blacksburg, Virginia on
Thursday, May 23 from 6-9 PM This symposium is
meant to bring electrical engineers from Southwest
Virginia together in an informal technical forum to
discuss all areas of electrical engineering. Each talk is
limited to 20 minutes including questions and answers.
Students are highly encouraged to present research
papers. Two significant CASH prizes will be awarded
to the best BS, MS, and PhD student papers. Please
submit an abstract of your paper (please be sure to
indicate if the paper is a student paper) to:
Dr. A. Wang
674 Whittemore Hall
231-4355
by April 15, 1996.
...Anbo
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[5]
Section Elections
May is election month for the VMS Section. Wayne
Scales is the elections chairman this year. All officers,
Chapter Chairmen, and the four Executive Committee
positions are open. Even though it is customary for the
officers to simply move up one slot, e.g.,
Scretary/Treasurer to Vice Chairman, and those
nominations are automatic, other people may be
nominated for any position, not just for the Executive
Committee. If you wish to make a nomination contact
Wayne at 231-5622 or wayne@starchild.ee.vt.edu.
Ballots will be mailed later this month.
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[6]
Electronic Newsletter
Almost 15 percent of our members now subscribe. If
you have not yet signed up, you are strongly
encouraged to do so.
To Subscribe, see instructions in the For Your
Information section on the last page.
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[7]
Computer/Control/IES Chapter
IEEE Computer/Control/Industrial
Electronics Chapter
1996 Spring Video Series
Tuesday
April 9
5:30 to 7:00 PM
GE Main Plant -- Cafeteria "A"
"Why C++ is Not Just an Object-Oriented
Programming Language"
Bjarne Stroustrup, AT&T Bell Labs
Introduced by:
Tom Settle
Communications Engineer
GE Drive Systems
C++ directly supports a variety of programming
styles. In this it differs from languages designed to
support a single way of writing programs using a
particular definition of object-oriented programming.
Stroustrup presents key programming styles directly
supported by C++ and argues that the support of
multiple programming paradigms is a major strength
for C++. The styles presented include: C-style
code, concrete classes, abstract classes, class
hierarchies, and generic programming. Recorded
October 19, 1995. 37 minutes.
Bjarne Stroustrop is the designer and original
implementor of C++. He is the head of AT&T Bell
Labs' Large Scale Programming Research Department
and an AT&T Bell Labs Fellow. He is the recipient
of the 1993 Grace Murray Harper award and is an
ACM Fellow.
Tom Settle is familiar to GE Salem employees as the
instructor for C and C++ Language courses. Tom
received the BSEE degree from Rochester Institute of
Technology. He came to GE Salem in 1994 as a
Control Systems Engineer in the Automation group.
He is now a Communications Specialist in the
Network Services group.
Tom's interests include Artificial Intelligence,
particularly genetic algorithms.
For Reservations Call Dave Geer
540-387-7359 by 5 PM Monday April 8.
This tape is one of three on the C++ language
available from the IEEE VMS Computer/Control/IES
Chapter Library. The others are:
"The Design of C++". Bjarne Stroustrup --
AT&T Bell Labs, March 1994, 76 minutes.
"Encapsulation and Inheritance in C++".
Mark Linton -- Silicon Graphics, March 1994, 46
minutes.
To borrow any of the Chapter library tapes contact
Dave Geer at 540-387-7359. e-Mail: geer-
dh@salem.ge.com.
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[8]
Power Engineering Chapter
Urgent
The Power Engineering (PE) Chapter of the VMS
Section last year was merged with the MTT and ED
Chapters under Hausila Singh because membership
was small and interest waning.
Hausila reports that there has been little interest and
no activity within the Chapter and that PE activities do
not realy belong with those of the MTT and ED
groups.
Considertion is being given to the dissolution of the
PE Chapter. If you have an interest in maintaing the
organization, in particular, assuming the responsibility
of Chairman and getting the Chapter active once
more, contact Hausila at 563-8639 or at
hsingh@gtc.itt.com.
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[ 8 ]
For Your Information
Change of Address
Submit to: IEEE Service Center
445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 1331
Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331
Telephone: 800-678-IEEE
e-mail: address.change@ieee.org
(Changes are forwarded to the Newsletter)
Newsletter Submissions:
Deadline: March issue,Wednesday, February 28, 1996
Submit To:
Editor: (See bottom of page)
Alternate: Wayne Scales
e-mail: wayne@starchild.ee.vt.edu.
E-MAIL Newsletter subscription
Send the one-line message:
SUBSCRIBE IEEEVMS your-name
(e.g.: SUBSCRIBE IEEEVMS Jane Doe)
to: listserv@VTVM1.cc.vt.edu
Do not include an automatic signature.
IEEE Virginia Mountain Section
Chairman: Wayne Scales 231-5622
wayne@starchild.ee.vt.edu.
Vice Chairman: Anbo Wang 231-4355
awang@vt.edu
Sec./Treasurer: David Livingston 857-6936
dllphdpe@roanoke.infi.net
Executive Committee:
David Geer 387-7359
geer-dh@salem.ge.com
Ira Jacobs 231-5620
ijacobs@vt.edu
Daniel W. Jackson 774-0484
d.jackson@ieee.org
Bill Mitchell 563-3939
bmitchell@gtc.itt.com
Virginia Council
Representative: vacant
Industrial Application Chapter
Chairman: Walter Hill 387-8619
Microwave Theory & Techniques/Electron Devices/PE Chapter
Chairman: Hausila Singh 563-8639
hsingh@sun3.gtc.itt.com
Industrial Electronics/Computer/Control Systems Chapter
Chairman: David Geer 387-7359
geer-dh@salem.ge.com
Newsletter Editor: John Fennick 552-0052